User Reviews

Deep red in color, and clear, but with lots of particles floating around. A thin head with a pink hue that leaves some lacing. (When poured more aggressively, the beer has a much bolder head that retains longer.)

The aroma is candy-sweet; it smells of strawberry Twizzlers and hard cherry candy.

Small 250 ml bottle.
The beer is clear reddish pink color, head rises up but then quickly shrinks back down. Spider webs of lacing.
There are strong smell of fruit, strawberries and cherries.
The taste has lots of fruity flavors, same strawberries, raspberries and cherries, sweet but not overly so.
Light body and mouth feel, crisp and refreshing.
This beer is easy to drink, not too sweet or cloying.
A good intro beer for the cider loving crowd.

There are certain beers that you put on your “wants” list and will go to great lengths to seek out. Maybe you envision happy thoughts about traveling to distant lands to try them at their source, or daydream about walking into your local bottle shop and seeing that rare, hard to find bottle finally sitting there on the shelf staring back at you, after years of pining for it.

Then there are the beers that your wife’s cousin’s husband gives to you as a housewarming gift as part of a mixed six-pack that you would never be caught dead buying for yourself in a million years.

Liefmans Fruitesse is one of those beers.

I don’t mean to come off as sounding negative. In all honesty, I love when other people purchase beer for me. It forces me to step outside my comfort zone and try something that I’d usually just pass over, for no reason other than normal human disposition.

And my struggle with drinking this beer has nothing to do with masculinity; believe me, I’m not breaking any records over here. It’s just that it falls into an odd category that straddles a fine line between what can be called a beer and what cannot. Is this a beer? Is it a cocktail mixer? A fruit punch? An alcoholic soda? Why do I even care? For starters, the ingredients and process used to brew this are confusing. Why take the time to age a beer on real cherries for 18 months and blend it with fresh beer, only to end up corrupting it with a mix of five different fruit juices (cherry, bilberry, elderberry, strawberry & raspberry) and artificial sweetener?

Then, there are the mere directions on the side of the bottle, which in themselves are enough to make any craft beer lover shudder in fear. “Step 1: Chill. Fill glass with 6 ice cubes.” For fuck’s sake. What am I getting myself into?; “Step 2: Serve. Pour Fruitesse into the glass.” You mean, the one with the ice cubes? Well, ok, if you say so; “Step 3: Cheers. Best enjoyed with friends.” Great idea! Seems harmless enough. On second thought, I’m probably just going to drink this alone on a random Wednesday night and not tell anyone about it, other than the few adventurous souls on the internet who will seek out and read this review.

The pour is dark ruby red and somewhat clear, with a soft, thick, pink head. A wonderfully fruity aroma jumps out of the glass and smacks you in the face. Cherries are the focus here and it’s difficult to pick out anything else. Inoffensive so far. The flavor is sweet on top of sweet on top of sweet, but that was to be expected. Halfway through the glass, I am happy that the bottle only contains 8.5 oz., because I probably wouldn’t want much more. Its high carbonation gives it a “spritzer” quality that doesn’t help the cause. Light to medium bodied, but not as drinkable as I thought it would be. I finish off the last sip with a slightly increased blood sugar level and a smile on my face.

There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?! What I seemed to overlook during this fruit beer excursion was that Liefmans is actually a reputable brewer of quality Belgian beer and not some giant beverage corporation pumping out trillions of gallons of soft drinks every year. Yes, the end product is strange but the intentions are focused and intentionally serve a niche market. Somebody, somewhere, is enjoying a Fruitesse right now, and that’s a good thing.

I actually think with the additional sweeteners removed and the carbonation toned down, this could be a fairly enjoyable drink. For now, I still have my guilty pleasures in life, this just will not be one of them.

Not every beer should be full on hops and heavy as an anvil. If you're like me and dance around the edge of the brew mainstream, you like fruity and light beers.. then you may delight in this one. Recommended to be served with 2/3 glass of icecubes, pours beautifully and has a very cherry-sweet taste. under-rated here, in my opinion. [similar to lindemans lambic, duchesse de bourgogne].

Liefmans Fruitesse is an extraordinary looking creation. Usually when shades of red are mentioned with regards to beer they're in the context of highlights or as exaggerated tones of amber, but this thing is uniquely, wholly, fabulously comprised of deep, vivid stains of crimson and ruby. The froth is pink. It's hard to believe but no colour is added - then again it is approximately 15% fruit juice, so...

Hence the aroma being so spectacularly fruity! The 18 months spent aging on cherries ensures that as the number one smell (both sweet and tart, red and black varieties) while raspberry, bilberry, elderberry, and strawberry do add some dimension but are really just footnotes in the big picture of things.

Why slowly age a beer on cherries in oak barrels only to annul that tart, funky flavour with fruit juice? Simple: the general public vastly prefers sweet to sour. It's in our DNA. The better question to me is why decimate a lovely, natural beer by adding fructose, flavour, and of all things stevia?!

The honest answer is straightforward: it makes for a ridiculously, fantastically flavoured beverage that quite literally will appeal to people of all ages (not to mention both genders). Anyone in business knows that every company needs a bread-and-butter product and if the sales of Fruitesse is what allows Liefmans to continue making brands like Goudeband and Glühkriek then I'm alright with it.

Besides, let's be honest, it's difficult not to like something that's light, sparkling and brim-full of ripe berry and cherry flavours. Mind you, I'm not always into that kind of beer; the difference here is that this is *agreeably* sweet (as opposed to cloyingly so). The base beer is tart and, unlike coolers or other 'malternatives', isn't just a neutral grain liquor with added syrup. There's some balance.

Lastly, unless your intention is simply to use fruit as accenting, then by all means make your fruit beer taste stupidly, splendidly fruity. Any criticisms of Fruitesse resembling cough syrup or candy are fair and understandable but I wouldn't subscribe to them. As I said above, I appreciate everyone needs to pay the bills and there's nothing wrong offering a simple (perhaps guilty) pleasure like this.

Pours a clear, maroon. 3/4 inch head of a pink color. Good retention and good lacing. Smells of strong cherry, strong strawberry, raspberry, slight tartness, and a hint of apple. Fits the style of a Fruit / Vegetable Beer. Mouth feel is sharp and crisp, with an average carbonation level. There is also a slight dryness. Tastes of cherry, strawberry, hint of raspberry, hint of apple, slight bacterial tartness, slight yeast, and slight sugary sweetness. Overall, all fruit all the way, complex blend though.

Holy fruit! This beer is overwhelmingly fruity. Poured into a glass it looks like cranberry juice with just a little sparkle. It smells exactly like the raspberries it was made with and overall does not taste like it has any alcohol in it, period. (Could be dangerous). It tastes like sparkling raspberry juice and is extremely easy to drink. I enjoyed it but I do not think I could drink it in large doses.

I picked up a bottle of Liefmans Fruitesse a few weeks ago for $9.99 at The Lager Mill. I've been going out of my way to try more beers from this brewery and since this bottle was the last one that the store had I thought I would take a chance on it, so lets see how it goes. 2010 Vintage. Poured from a green 750ml bottle into a teku.

A- The label looks nice, it's got a clean look to and it has all the fruits that are in this beer on it, I think it's just a little eye catching. It poured a murky brown red color that took more of a ruby and crimson hue when held to the light with almost two fingers worth of fluffy light pink head that died down to a thin ring that stayed till the end and it left some spotty and patchy lacing behind. This is a good looking beer, but I thought the color was a little murky.

S- The aroma starts off with a higher amount of sweetness with a huge fruity aroma being the first to show up and when combined with the sweetness it makes for an aroma that is nearly identical to fruit punch, it was a nice mixture of fruity berry aromas with no single fruit sticking out the most. Up next comes a little bit of Belgian yeast with a slight funky yeast aroma to it and there was pretty much no malt aromas. This beer has a pretty good aroma, it's fully of fruity aromas, but it's a little on the sweet side.

T- The taste seems to be similar to the aroma and it starts off with a lower amount of high sweetness with that same big fruity and fruity punch like aspect that I got in the aroma coming through and it has a nice juice like flavor to it. Up next comes just a little bit of tartness with the yeast showing up just a little more than it did in the aroma and there still isn't much of malt aspect. On the finish there some lingering sweetness with a fruit punch like aftertaste. This is a good tasting beer, but the sweetness was almost too much for me.

M- Very smooth, a little refreshing, slightly cloying, a little crisp, medium bodied with a medium amount of carbonation. This beer has a good mouthfeel that works well with it.

Overall I thought this was a good beer and I thought it was a good example of the style, it was just dominated by the fruits that went into it and it made for a great mixed berry flavor and aroma that lived up to what I was expecting from the label. This beer has good drinkability, it's smooth, a little refreshing, slightly cloying, a little crisp, not too filling and the taste did a good job at holding my attention, I think one glass is the perfect amount for me, but I wouldn't rule out drinking a full bottle. what I like the most about this beer was how the berries that were advertised all showed up nicely and worked well with this beer. What I like the least about this beer was the sweetness if was toned down a little with some more funky yeast showing up this would be almost the perfect fruit beer. I would recommend trying this beer if you really like fruit beers and I would for sure buy this one again. All in all I was happy with this beer and I was a little impressed with just how much berry flavor they managed to cram into this beer. It's not a favorite from this brewery, but it is one of the better Belgian fruit beers I've had. Good job guys, this was a tasty beer, keep it up.

Appearance: Pours a clear pink color. The head is a finger high and...uh...pink in shade. Even on the rocks, it has a good texture and retention. A tiny ring of lacing sticks to the glass. For what it is, it looks pretty damn good. (4)

Smell: HOLY SWEET SUGARY CHERRIES, BATMAN. That's really all it is: cherries and sugar. It comes close to verging on cough syrup territory, unfortunately. And that's about it. It is what it is, folks. (2.75)

Mouthfeel: Being on the rocks dilutes it some - in other words, it cuts through the sweetness a bit. It also cuts down the carbonation some. I suppose I should be impressed by how big in flavor (read: sweetness) it is for 3.8%... (2.5)

Overall: Well, I can safely say I haven't had anything like this. But take away the "on the rocks" gimmick, though, and it's just another cherry beer - ridiculously sweet and even kind of artificial, yet appealing enough to those who happen to enjoy this style. I won't be returning to it again, though. (2.5)

The head of thick, pink, stiff.
Very cherry aroma, but you can also feel the strawberries, raspberries, red fruit yogurt (accent of milk).
Refreshing taste sensational, there are cherries, raspberries, strawberries, acidity like a red currant. Minimum sparkling and very gently sweet, milk is the accent that reminds me a bit of candy Alpenliebe. Very good, maybe not for the winter but it's ok.

I can't help but appreciate this beer because it is the first beer my fiancee has ever been willing to have more than a sip of. Obviously, she is not a beer drinker, and I don't think that will ever truly change. But since she liked this one, I've been able to get her drinking some lambics. I still hold out hope that she'll find the awesomeness in beer one day. Thanks Liefmans.

250 mL bottle from the singles bin at my local LCBO; best before Oct. 2015. Listed at 3.8%, and served well-chilled, though not 'on the rocks' as suggested.

This fruit beer pours a beautiful, deep reddish-garnet colour, topped with about one finger of bubbly pink froth. It recedes slowly, leaving behind a modest, creamy cap and collar at the surface. The aroma is quite enticing, and basically about what I'd expect from a beer that looks like this - very fruity and tart, with raspberry and strawberry figuring in most prominently, as well as lighter notes of cherry and wheaty malt sweetness. All good so far.

Delivers as advertised - very fruity and very refreshing, without going overboard. Tart raspberry and sour cherry dominate initially, with a sweeter strawberry/cherry flavour coming through toward the finish. I certainly can't claim that this isn't a yummy beer, although it's still a little too sweet for my tastes (although, to be fair, this is supposed to be served on ice, which would definitely cut the sweetness). On the lighter side of medium-bodied, with moderate carbonation and a slick mouthfeel that manages to avoid feeling too syrupy. Definitely a hot weather beer.

Final Grade: 3.65, a respectable B grade. I've passed up Liefmans Fruitbier on the shelves for the better part of a decade, which is a shame because as far as these novelty Belgian fruit beers go, this is a fairly good one. Tart and refreshing, with a (relatively speaking) tempered sweetness that I can appreciate. Not being a frequent consumer of this style, I don't see myself buying it regularly in the future, but I'd happily recommend it to others and certainly wouldn't turn one down. It's drinkable on its own, but I'd take the label's advice and just pour it over some ice cubes.

Pours cranberry red with pink foam and quite a lot of it. Fruity aroma, quite pungent. Mostly cherries and strawberry. It tastes in line with a diet cherry soft drink. Sure there are other flavours at play but the fruity sweetness is a bit overwhelming. Any redeeming qualities are overpowered by the artificial sweetener which really lingers in the finish. Light mouth feel with generous carbonation.

Tasty, but this essentially a beer soda pop. Lots of fruit, sweet, but drinkable. Works well over ice, so suitable as a summer patio drink. Proper use of fruit without the horrible perfumey character of an ill-made fruit beer. Drink it for what it is and enjoy.

Review according to BJCP 2008 guidelines (style 20) - Leifmans Fruitesse. Aroma: sweet aroma of cherry and other red fruits with an aftertaste of raspberry. sweetness maybe due to the use of fruit concentrates. No malt of hop aromas present. Appearance: clear ruby red with some orange tint and pink head with fair retention. Taste: sweet flavour of cherries dominates. Palate: smooth medium-low body with medium carbonation levels. Body not so thin maybe because of the use of adjuncts. Overall: a very enjoyable fruit beer but the extra sweetness may give the impression of an artificial product.

Appearance –The beer pours a deep ruby red color with a one finger head of red tinted foam. The head has a good level of retention, fading to leave a good level of foamy lace on the sides of the glass.

Smell – The aroma is big and fruity of red beery fruits with tons of raspberry and strawberry, but also contain good hints of cranberry and current. A little bit of a blueberry and some lighter plum are there as well giving it a very sweet fruity smell overall.

Taste – The taste begins a little less sweet then would have been anticipated from the nose, but still overall it was rather sweet. A big red berry fruit flavor of strawberry, raspberry and cranberry greet the tongue along with some blueberry flavors. These flavors create a base for the brew and last till the end. Along with the berry fruits comes some light doughy sweet malt and some cherry which end up leaving a very sweet, and how many people have aptly described it, Kool-Aid (but I must say adult/gourmet Kool-Aid) flavor, that I must say is not super overly sweet for the style, to linger on the tongue.

Mouthfeel – The body of the beer is quite light with a carbonation level that is rather average to slightly higher. Both the light body and higher carbonation are fantastic for the fruit flavors of the brew and create a very crisp and easy drinking brew overall.

Overall – Well I paid $5 for a 4 pack of 8.5 oz. bottles that had an expiration date of 10/14. I would say I won big time on that buy. While not the greatest fruit style brew out there, for $1.25 a bottle this was a fantastic buy overall and makes for a good fruit beer when looking for something light and fruity.

Pours a clear, dark, garnet color with a short-lived, pink head that dissipates to a faint film. No lacing left behind in this Belgian.
Smell is, of course, raspberries, sweet, slightly artificial or enhanced, with a hint of malt behind. Decent balance for the style.
Taste is raspberry, slight sourness with a sweeter finish, malt and a mere hint of yeast. Well balanced, exactly what I expected and wanted.
Somewhat astringent, a good thing in a dessert beer, imo, without getting to the point of pucker. Light-medium body, tingly effervescence on the tip of the tongue but light elsewhere. A light warming aspect develops after a few swallows/sips, way in the back of the throat, just to remind you there's alcohol here. I like it.